wattacetti

It's going to be opaque and starting to flake, but it will depend on the size/thickness of the filet piece you're cooking. I've done Chilean sea bass under similar oven temps and that didn't take more than about 5-6 minutes either. Portion size was about 150 g, from a fairly thick filet.

I'm being a little thick but temperature to remove the fish? From what, the marinade?

If it's the same celebrity chef MTigges refers to whose TV episode I'm looking at right now, it's a 350ºF oven for approximately 5 minutes. He serves it on a bed of shimeji mushrooms, potato and leek.

I guess it's a good idea not to let people know where you live; people I know who foraged for these things in Western Canada had to stop because of the mushroom poachers trying to supply the demand in Asia. I've only have matsutake a couple of times: grilled (plain and mixed with rice) and also sliced into dashi for a mushroom soup. You could always look for old episodes of Iron Chef where matsutake were the featured ingredient for some sort of inspiration. I'm watching the one with Masamitsu Takahashi (vs Sakai). Salad with daikon, tempura, dobin-mushi soup, raw, straight charcoil broiling, matsutake and lobster soup, steamed with tilefish, and duck.

Pam, There are the watermelon seed equivalent of a nutcracker packaged within some of the Asian brands for those who are challenged in their ability to get at the seed. They work pretty well but one has to be careful or else the top half flies everywhere. They're great snacks though and I think people are more hooked on the flavoring on the shell rather than on the seed itself.

In Vancouver, it would be the grilled shiitake mushroom at Tojo's. A very focused and deceptively simple dish.

I recently poached Seckel pears in a Syrah from the Languedoc, with cinnamon, fennel seed, cloves and a couple of lemon wedges. Used a 1:4 ratio for sugar and still found that the pears came out cloyingly sweet (then again, I don't eat a lot of desserts). Since I forgot to make the rest of the components for the dessert, the pears were served on their own with the poaching liquid reduced further to make a syrup to lacquer them with. I've heard that the remainder of the syrup found a home as ice cream topping.

Quoting Homer (Simpson): "… You gotta improvise, Lisa: cloves, Tom Collins mix, frozen pie crust …" But I digress.

Uh, did I miss something or did you believe that you will not hurt yourself using those Roncos? Forschners are good, but if you have chance, see if the knife(ves) feels good in your hand. You can start investing in your higher end set later.

Have the 10" chef's and boning knife from the Shun Classic; the nakiri, 4 and 8" deba, and the 8 and 10" yanagiba from the Pro line. They're harder to sharpen than the Wustofs I've used in the past, but I'm getting better at it with the waterstones; I do not use a steel on any of the blades, though I'm trying to find a ceramic one for the two Classics. Finish and edges on all the knives have held up quite well (hand-wash, immediately dry). I've had to adapt a bit with respect to the single-bevel design of the Pros (the knives naturally want to turn in clockwise as you cut), but I haven't regretted my purchases. The nakiri and the longer of the two yanagibas have turned out to be my favorites, but that's a personal use thing. I do get use out of all of them. Anyway, suggest you visit your local Chinatown for a cleaver.

I went to Pintxo the first week it opened (click here). Lesley reviewed the place several weeks ago, and Tastet's review in Voir is here. There's also Tapeo, which people have liked; I personally haven't been yet.

Something (decidedly) lower anatomically.

Well, we won't talk about the cryptorchidism , but "what he said". The ham sounds like too much work since you still plan a salad (bean salad does sound more than fine and can be made ahead), vegetables and a dessert. Moussaka, shepherd's pie, big lasagna… something that can be assembled in advance so that it's ready to pop into the oven while you bolt on a smile and oil your neck for that evening of nodding your head. You can always direct the complainers to the nearest outlet for a bucket of the Colonel's finest.

Hey, I had this at a restaurant in Taiwan. Yours looks better than what I remembered.

Okay, I've already posted this ad nauseum, but I paid $14 for this… This is a plate I made almost 2 years ago; I think they're boneless chicken legs stuffed with something (?) sitting atop rapini and sweet potato. The rapini's a nice green but I don't know what I was thinking: apart from a sauce that went MIA, it looks like I'm serving pathology sections. This mess I created this evening: Had a bottle of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo that I wanted to get rid of, and there were these two dead pheasants sitting in the freezer, so figured it was a good time to braise some bird. Well… Note to self: learn how to braise game birds. The broccoli and the smashed potato that looks like wallpaper paste gone bad tasted okay, but nothing else did. The other lesson learned: don't plate anything with broccoli.

Because they're generally inexpensive and many people like them.

Olive & Olives on Laurier (east) also carries a variety of Spanish oils.

Ah… the hangout of many of McGill University's American and Ontarian contingent back when I was at the alma mater. Was dragged there once and watched a waiter make up a new pitcher by combining the (theoretically) unused remainders of other pitchers. Did I mention that my glass was dotted with little crusty bits and still had lipstick prints?

I don't suppose you have any photos to assist those of us stuck in the cubes doing e-mail management?

… and I thought was the only one who I walked around spouting odd tidbits.

Hate to tell you this Grub, but that still looks a whole lot better that some of the things I've seen others cook. The weird yellow patches on the lamb are a little odd though.

Don't touch me. Ever.

I'll try at least one of these places on the next run into YVR. The comparison should be interesting, but only if they're also willing to do omakase.

You've piqued my curiousity: where have you eaten?

If you want a second chance and don't want to fly to Italy, go to Saskatchewan. There are several in the province, including a few that will also serve "Canadian Food" for those clients who don't want Chinese or pizza.